For its 7th edition, the Transat Quebec / St Malo in 2008 have leaved Quebec on Sunday, July 20, 2008 to Saint Malo.
This transatlantic race by crew of at least three people, succeeds traditionally the british single-handed transatlantic race: The Transat.
The course is characterized by a descent of the St. Lawrence River on nearly 400 miles. Then the skippers cross the Atlantic with winds generally bearing.
The race is Open: this means that it is open to several classes of boats that run at the same time but on route which may be different.
Entries for the Transat Quebec / Saint-Malo were open to the following classes:
- Class ORMA
- Class IMOCA
- CLASS 50 'OPEN multihull
- CLASS 40 monohull
This year proves once again that the ORMA class (60-foot multihulls) is moribund. Having only one registered in this class, organizers did not leave him participate in the race. He will attempt to establish a reference time between Quebec City and Saint-Malo in bypassing the Magdalen Islands and the Azores.
In the IMOCA class (60-foot monohulls), registrants are also lacking, the skippers preferring to prepare the Vendee Globe 2008.
The stars are the 50-foot multihulls, a category where malouins are well represented. We find Franck-Yves Escoffier on his Crepes Whaou II and Victorien Erussard and Loïc Escoffier on Laiterie de Saint-Malo.
The bulk of the fleet will be the sailships of the Class 40 category (40-foot monohulls) with not less than eighteen crews.
